1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer systems and, more particularly, to the backup and restore of distributed data.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has become common for organizations to employ distributed applications installed on a network of computer systems to manage a wide variety of information, e.g., enterprise data. There are many different types of distributed applications. Microsoft® Exchange Server®, for example, provides an organization with a messaging (e-mail) and collaboration environment. As another example, Microsoft SharePoint® Portal Server provides a unified view (on a website) of information from various applications. Still further, Microsoft's® Distributed File System (DFS) provides a single name space for combining the views of files on multiple, networked computers into a single, hierarchical view.
A distributed application may work with a set of distributed data sources. For example, a distributed application may have access to one or more database repositories, file systems, or other storage media, either local or remote. Various design decisions determine the number and location of data sources associated with a given distributed application. Such decisions may include the quantity of data stored, required frequency of access to the data, network latency between servers on which the data is stored, and the functionality required of the application software installed on each server.
The protection of data such as enterprise data includes performing a backup of data sources associated with distributed applications. During a backup operation, data from multiple data sources, including metadata, may be copied and stored on backup media, access to which is provided by a “media server.” It is common for a distributed application to have a sufficiently large amount of data to be backed up such that multiple backup tapes or other media may be required.
Specialized software tools for performing backup and restore of distributed applications have been widely implemented. For example, BackupExec® from Veritas Software Corporation is a commercial product for backing up enterprise data. In some instances, data source servers were typically configured to transmit backup data via a “relay” server to the media server. However, as distributed applications grow in size, current techniques may become more and more impractical to implement. Such difficulties are particularly prevalent where a distributed environment encompasses, for example, a variety of networked computer systems and software environments that are located at various geographic locations.
Accordingly, different techniques for backup and restore of distributed application data are desired.